I'm by no means a professional at modeling, texturing, etc. - So take this guide with a grain of salt.

Also, thanks to Ruvik for about 90% of this guide!

- Depth SDK
- Any version of Maya software from Autodesk
- 3DCoat
- Computer that can handle the software

Ok, maybe you didn't want to create a sea mine. Why a sea mine? It is one of the easiest object to create, and frankly - I'm lazy! Besides, even if your creation is a monstrosity, you can always blow it up!

Now, please read these instructions very, very carefully. If you don't, one of few many errors can occur. With that said, let's begin!


First, open up the Maya software that you should have installed. The version of the software shouldn't matter, and it should have, at the minimum, a Student license - which is free!

I'm going to assume that you know how to perform basic modeling, but please check out one of many Maya tutorials on YouTube if you need to learn!

Of course, before we start modeling, we need to know the size of the object we are going to create! We are going to use the default reference object from Depth to accomplish this, so we are going to need the actual object, aren't we?


Assuming that you have the Depth SDK installed and enabled, open up Depth from your library and open the Depth Editor when prompted by a popup.

'Unreal Editor for Depth Game (WhateverBit, WhateverDirectXVersion)' should open, and look like this:



Now, navigate to the content browser under View->Browser Windows->Content Browser and a window like this should pop up...



Inside the 'Packages' window, navigate to DepthGame->Content->Weapons->SeaMine->SeaMine

You should now be looking at a folder containing the default Sea Mine mesh and associated textures, etc.



Right click the SkeletalMesh named 'SeaMine' and press 'Export to File...', and save the FBX file somewhere that you'll remember, such as the desktop.

Now you should have the default Sea Mine object from Depth on your desktop, ready to import to Maya!


Now that we have the reference object for our own mine, let's create it! Open Maya if its not already open, and get to work! For purposes of this guide, I'll do something basic, and walk you guys through it!

When you first open up Maya, your interface will be different based on version, but should roughly look like this:



Again, if your interface is slightly different due to Maya version, you shouldn't worry too much!


First, let's familarize ourselves with the basic controls.

> Use your scrollwheel to zoom in/out

> Hold Alt+Hold Left click and drag left and right to pan left and right

> Hold Alt+Hold Right click and drag up and down to zoom/tumble in/out

> Hold Alt+Hold Middle mouse button to free move

Try out these controls and get yourself comfortable, as you're going to be using them a lot!

Now, Maya let's you, by default, see the perspective view - the '3D View' as I call it. However, there are many other 'views' visible to you, and just as many ways to access those 'views'.

The simplest ways are to either press spacebar or click the 4-panel layout button on the left side.

The button:


The 'views':


You should switch between different views when modeling, as they can be advantageous over one another.


Since this guide isn't to teach you every inch of Maya, I'll only create a basic model for our Sea Mine.

On top of Maya, go to Create->Polygon Primitives, and uncheck 'Interactive Creation'. Then, go to Create->Polygon Primitives->Cube. You should now have a cube in the center of your workspace.


Congratulations, we made a cube! Now, unless you want a cube as your Sea Mine, let's add a few details to it.

Selected the top face of the cube. When a face is selected, it should turn orange.

After it is selected, press Ctrl+E to extrude the selected faces. Scale the face until a smaller square appears in the larger face.



After it does, press Ctrl+E again to extrude once more, and drag up. It should now look like this:



Now, click one of the 'colored cubes' that are used for scaling. One more cube should appear in the center of the extrude. Click and hold, then drag that until the point becomes relatively pointy.

It should now look like this:



Hold right click and switch back to object mode.

That's as far as I'm going to teach you on modeling. If you want something fancier, search up and watch some Maya tutorials!


Now that we have our model, we need to resize our object accordingly to the size of the in-game Sea Mine. This is where our previous reference Sea Mine comes in!

Now, before we import the reference model, we need to enable some settings in Maya first. To make things easier, enable Shading->X-Ray. Your model should now be roughly transparent, which will allow you to see through multiple models.



Then, go to Windows->Settings/Preferences->Plug-in Manager and scroll down until you see 'fbxmaya'. Check/Recheck the 'Loaded' option and then close out the Plug-in manager.

Now that we are ready to import the file, go to File->Import and navigate to the directory where you saved the reference FBX file for the Sea Mine, and double-click to open it. Should any warnings/errors pop up, ignore them.

To make things easier to see, hold right click when selecting the imported Sea Mine, and Assign Existing Material->lambert1.

You should now have something like this:



Now, all we have to do is scale our model to be roughly the same size as the existing Sea Mine model, like so:



After you're done resizing, you don't need the original Sea Mine model any more, so select it and press delete on your keyboard to delete it.

Congratulations, you now have your new Sea Mine mesh!


Now, Sea Mines for Depth need one 'bone' binded to the mesh, which is very simple to do.

On the top-left of the Maya window, switch to 'Rigging':



Then go to Skeleton->Create Joints and click in the center of your model to create a joint, like this:



Then, Shift+Select both the newly created joint and Model, then go to Skin->Bind Skin to bind the join to the model. If this was done correctly, your Sea Mine model should now rotate if the joint rotates.

e.g



Your model is now ready to be exported!

Go to File->Export All and choose 'FBX Export' under 'Files of type' make sure the FBX file verion is set to FBX 2013, otherwise, the Depth SDK/UDK won't be able to recognize it.
Don't do this yet, however.

Now, before we export the model, click your model and, unless you know how to UV Map, and go to the UV Automatic Projection tool to create a UV Map. After that is done, export it. If you see a warning about a 'defaultpolygontexture', go to Windows->Rendering Editors->Hypershade and delete all textures there except for lambert1, particleCloud1, and shaderGlow1. Then, try exporting again.

After the export, we should now have a FBX file containing the model of our new sea mine, rigged and all! But it is still grey right now, and we need to change that!

Fire up 3DCoat (Which I assumed you installed) and press 'Paint UV Mapped Mesh', then click the folder and open up the FBX file of your sea mine.

I'm not going to teach you the basics of 3DCoat, as there are plenty of tutorials out there - but it is, at the very basic, Photoshop for 3D Models. Paint your model until you think it looks good, and ready to export the texture files. I painted our test object wood.



Now that we are ready to export our texture files, go to File->Export Objects and Textures, and, under Output Mesh, select our FBX file. Uncheck Export Geometry so that it doesn't override our current FBX file. Now, Depth uses few texture maps, but the options that you MUST check for export are: Export Color, Export Specular Color, and Export Tangent Normal Map.

Here are the options I used:



You should now have the texture files located in the same directory as your Sea Mine FBX file.

Now that we have both our Mesh/Model, and texture maps, we can import it to the Depth editor!

Reepon the editor and create a new Sea Mine skin. Do this by going to File->New Diver Gear Skin
and giving it a name. Then, navigate to our new skin package, which should contain the default textures and materials:



Right click anywhere inside the package and click 'Import...', then navigate to and open the FBX file of our new Sea Mine!

These next few instructions are extremely important, so read them closely.

Under 'Info', in the grouping text box, type exactly 'SkeletalMeshes'.

Scroll down, and 'Import Type' should be Skeletal Mesh.

Under Options->Skeletal Mesh->Advanced, check 'Import Meshes in Bone Hierarchy'.

After you select these options, click 'Ok to All' and import the new Skeletal Mesh.


There are three textures we need to replace. _D is Diffuse, _N is Normal, and _S is Specular. Right click on them and click 'Reimport Texture' and replace them with your own textures.

<------You may not have to do this part------>
After that is done, double-click the 'MaterialInstanceConstant' named 'SeaMine' to open it. The menu should look like this:



Under Properties->Parameter Groups->Diffuse Pass, replace the existing property value with your new diffuse map. Do this by clicking your diffuse texture in the content browser, pressing Ctrl+C, then pasting it into the Diffuse Pass->Diffuse Map property value via Ctrl+V. Do the same for both the Normal Map texture and Specular Color texture. Replace the General Map texture with that of the Specular Map.
<------END PART------>

Now, click your MaterialInstanceConstant in the Content Browser and press Ctrl+C to copy it. Double-click your skeletal mesh to open it, and replace the value of Skeletal Mesh->Materials by deleting the current value and pressing Ctrl+V to replace it with your new material. Close the window and reopen the Skeletal Mesh. It should now be textured.




Double-click your Archetype to open it's properties. Paste your new skeletal mesh and materials in the proper properties using the Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V method like so:



You can change the name and rarity of your item here as well!

Well, I hope you already know how to test out skins, but if you do not...

Go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Depth , where you will find two directories, one labeled 'DepthGame', the other labeled 'SDK'

First, go to SDK\DepthGame\Content\Weapons\SeaMine\Skins and copy your skin package.

Then, go to DepthGame\CookedPC\Weapons\SeaMine\Skins and paste the package there.

After it is succesfully copied, go to SDK\Binaries\Win64\DepthEd.exe to start the SDK version of the game. Your new skin should now be available for testing!

Have problems? Leave a comment below, and i'll try my very best to help you! Promise! I'll also try to add more details and pictures to ease beginners with the menus.

Want to learn more?

Try this:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=895717162